17 to 18 Dec 2007, Tirana

kids looking into garbage dumps for some useful materials.

at the back of the market, we spoted a piece of land with many shelters built from scrap materials (cardboards, cloths, metal sheets, etc). at a wet and cold temperature of 5 degrees celcius, it could be an unbearably cold place to sleep in.

many live turkeys were sold at this time of the year for xmas. some local sellers jokingly called out to us to buy from them. the locals were really friendly people...
market
a half torn down house

a half completed house

a snow mountain from far

admiring the beauty of the city of Tirana

graves below the statue of Mother Albania

Mother Albania statue

on our way up the hill to find Mother Albania statue

Statue of Mother Teresa

we left rome at 1.30pm, took a train to bari, and then spend the night in the lounge on the ferry to durres in albania. the ferry sailed through the choppy waters in the night and many people threw up and couldnt sleep. some kids were crying because of the discomfort. we arrived in tirana at 11.30am. found a hotel by the main road and quickly settled in for 20 euros a night.
Dlitta who works at the reception everyday told us that he is paid about 5 euros a day for 8 hours of work. considering a loaf of bread there costs about 0.80 euro, i think he can hardly make ends meet. he is a nice and gentle man in his late 50s... shared with us many things though it was only hand gestures all the time. he doesnt speak english nor did we understand albanian but we had a great time together.